The Ellen MacArthur Foundation’sNew Plastics Economy initiative has published a statement calling for a ban on oxo-degradable plastic packaging and bags. Signatories include leading businesses, industry associations, NGOs, scientists, and elected officials. They include M&S, PepsiCo, Unilever, Veolia, British Plastics Federation, Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association, Packaging South Africa, Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Plymouth Marine Laboratory, ten Members of the European Parliament and the Australasian Bioplastics Association.

In total, over 150 organisations, including leading businesses representing every step of the plastics supply chain, industry associations, NGOs, scientists, and elected officials have endorsed the statement calling for global action to avoid widescale environmental risk.

Oxo-degradable plastic packaging, including carrier bags, is often marketed as a solution to plastic pollution, with claims that such plastics degrade into harmless residues within a period ranging from a few months to several years. However, as outlined in a new statement by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy initiative, significant evidence indicates that oxo-degradable plastics do not degrade into harmless residues, but instead fragment into tiny pieces of plastic and contribute to microplastic pollution, posing a risk to the ocean and other ecosystems, potentially for decades to come.

“The available evidence overwhelmingly suggests oxo-degradable plastics do not achieve what their producers claim and instead contribute to microplastic pollution. In addition, these materials are not suited for effective long-term reuse, recycling at scale or composting, meaning they cannot be part of a circular economy.” – Rob Opsomer, Lead for Systemic

“Using oxo-degradable additives is not a solution for litter. Their use in waste management systems will likely cause negative outcomes for the environment and communities,” said Erin Simon, Director of Sustainability Research and Development, World Wildlife Fund. “When public policy supports the cascading use of materials – systems where materials get reused over and over, this strengthens economies and drives the development of smarter materials management systems. This leads to wins for both the environment and society.”

As a result of the significant body of evidence raising concerns about the potential negative impacts of plastic fragments from oxo-degradable plastics, an increasing number of companies and governments have started to take action to restrict their use, in particular in Europe. For example, in the UK retailers such as Tesco and the Co-operative stopped the use of oxo-degradable plastics in their carrier bags. France banned the use of oxo-degradable plastics altogether in 2015.

However, oxo-degradable plastics are still produced in many European countries, including the UK, and marketed across the world as safely biodegradable. Several countries in the Middle-East and Africa, including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, areas of Pakistan, Yemen, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Ghana and Togo, are still promoting the use of oxo-degradable plastics or have even made their use mandatory.

To create a plastics system that works, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy initiative, together with the signing organisations, supports innovation that designs out waste and pollution, and keeps products and materials in high-value use in line with the principles of a circular economy.

Note: Oxo-degradable plastics should not be confused with compostable plastics that comply with international standards and can be safely biodegraded through (industrial) composting.

THE ELLEN MACARTHUR FOUNDATION

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation was created in 2010 to accelerate the transition to a circular economy. The Foundation works across five areas: insight and analysis, business and government, education and training, systemic initiatives, and communication.

With its Knowledge Partners (Arup, IDEO, McKinsey & Co., and SYSTEMIQ), and supported by Core Philanthropic Funder (SUN), the Foundation works to quantify the economic opportunity of a more circular model and to develop approaches for capturing its value. The Foundation collaborates with its Global Partners (Danone, Google, H&M, Intesa Sanpaolo, NIKE, Inc., Philips, Renault, Unilever), and its CE100 network (businesses, universities, emerging innovators, governments, cities, and affiliate organisations), to build capacity, explore collaboration opportunities and to develop circular business initiatives.

The Foundation has created global teaching, learning and training platforms on the circular economy, encompassing work with leading universities, schools and colleges, and online events such as the Disruptive Innovation Festival. By establishing platforms such as the New Plastics Economy initiative, the Foundation works to transform key material flows, applying a global, cross-sectoral, cross value chain approach that aims to effect systems change.

The Foundation promotes the idea of a circular economy via research reports, case studies and books series, using multiple channels, web and social media platforms, including circulatenews.org which provides a leading online source for circular economy news and insight.

The New Plastics Economy is an ambitious, three-year initiative to build momentum towards a plastics system that works. Applying the principles of the circular economy, it brings together key stakeholders to rethink and redesign the future of plastics, starting with packaging. The initiative is led by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in collaboration with a broad group of leading companies, cities, philanthropists, policymakers, academics, students, NGOs, and citizens.

Some of the great catalysts of change in the sport and sustainability sectors came together at the #SEASummit 2017, to tackle how the sporting industry can limit its impact on the environment.

Sport instigates passion at the highest level, there is nothing more exciting than watching one of your favourite sporting heroes or your child shoot for a goal, catch a perfect wave or hit a winning shot. We hear the roar of the crowd at large events and watch the sea of people. What most of us don’t think about is the environmental impact of sports and sporting events. Sporting grounds require water and the need to manage waste and energy. Major events have an even bigger challenge with waste, water and energy consumption. Looking at how sports affect the environment and then how to reduce this impact, is the monumental task that the Sports Environment Alliance (SEA) and its members have set themselves.

Held at the iconic MCG, the SEA’s 2nd annual #SEASummit brought together leaders in the sporting world and the sustainability industry to discuss how a collective and collaborative approach can lead to change.

The #SEASummit 2017 attendees read like the who’s who of the Australian sporting world including SEA Members such as the AFL, Basketball Australia, Confederation of Australian Motor Sport , Cricket Australia, FFA, Netball Australia, Surfing Victoria, Tennis Australia (TA), Victoria Racing Club, as well as sporting greats, councils, sustainability industry experts, innovative suppliers as well as media amongst others. All of the participants have one common goal and that is a win for the environment.

Understanding the importance of the role bioplastics can have in minimising waste, Australasian Bioplastics Association (ABA) members Natureworks, Biopak and Cardia Bioplastics all had guernseys at the #SEASummit 2017. In “Cleaning Up The Materials Conversation”, Gary Smith from BioPak and Doug Kunnemann from Natureworks discussed how shifting to certified compostable plastics can greatly reduce waste created at sporting events ending up in landfill.

Dr Sheila N Nguyen, Executive Director SEA states, “The Sports Environment Alliance is represented by industry leaders who understand that we need to minimise the weight of our imprint on the grass we play on, and to do so, we must be an active part of the circular economy. Our members and our communities must consider decisions which will #SEAtheChange for the energy, water and materials we have and use.” Sheila continues, “Having the option to use bioplastic products at events ensures that we encourage the creation, use, and management of materials in the best way we can, to authentically engage the no waste world.”

We all know that sport has the power to influence, the SEA want the sport industry tackle environmental health from the grassroots through to the elite level, and encompass everyone who is involved from participants, to fans and venues.

With Australian households throwing away 3.1 million tonnes of edible food per year, many local governments are creating change.Over 500 local governments across Australia manage waste on behalf of their local communities by organising waste collection and processing or disposing of food waste.

Having identified a significant amount of food in their waste streams, local governments are taking steps to reduce food waste through a range of programs. Some of these initiatives include information sessions and demonstrations on storing food and composting at home, grants and rebates for households to purchase compost bins and worm farms, and the roll-out of kerbside organic bins to divert food waste from landfill.

As food and garden waste makes up a large portion (up to 61%) of the average household’s current garbage bin waste, many local governments have introduced food and garden organics bins. By collecting food and garden waste, local governments are diverting kitchen organics from landfill while also giving people a disposal option for garden waste.

To enable clean and easy kitchen food waste collection, many local governments provide residents with a kitchen caddy and certified compostable liners. Kitchen caddy liners are made from certified compostable materials (usually compostable corn-starch) and are verified under Australian Standard AS4736 to compost in commercial composting facilities within 6 weeks.

The Australasian Bioplastics Association (ABA) and its members have seen a rapid growth in local governments implementing kitchen food waste recycling for their communities. ABA Member, Cardia Bioplastics (subsidiary of SECOS Group) recently won a major contract to supply AS4736 certified compostable bags to Penrith City Council in NSW.

City of Penrith Mayor, Councilor John Thain, said, “Our council is intently focused on sustainable waste management and resource recovery services, and diverting organic waste away from landfill through SECOS’ compostable bags supports our community’s efforts.” There are now 27 Councils in NSW who have implemented kitchen food waste recycling for their communities.

At the recent NSW Australian Organics Recycling Association (AORA) Annual awards ceremony in November Albury City Council was recognised for its considerable achievements in implementing a FOGO (Food Organic & Garden Organics) service for residents in Albury and neighbouring councils. The ABA works closely with the AORA to ensure that bags meet recycling standards.

With an increase in organics industrial recycling facilities being setup across Australia, ABA members are continually working closely with councils in running trial programs and supplying AS4736 certified compostable bags.

With a new National Waste strategy having just been launched in November there are sure to be more local governments commencing trial programs and implementing Kitchen Food Waste Recycling.

Australian consumers throw away around 3.1 million tonnes of food—that’s close to 17,000 grounded 747 jumbo jets. Another 2.2 million tonnes is disposed of by the commercial and industrial sector.1

Food waste is estimated to cost the Australian economy around $20 billion each year. Food waste is not just wasted food, it also impacts the energy, fuel and water used to grow food that may not be used and instead is thrown away. Food waste that is sent to landfill contributes to greenhouse gas emissions creating further negative environmental impact.

To help address this important issue, the Australian Government committed in 2016 to develop a National Food Waste Strategy and to deliver a National Food Waste Summit. The strategy establishes a framework to support actions that work towards halving Australia’s food waste by 2030. This ambitious goal aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12 for sustainable consumption and production patterns.

On 20 November the National Food Waste Strategy was launched by the Minister for the Environment and Energy at the National Food Waste Summit. The culmination of many months of consultation with industry, academia, the not-for-profit sector, and all tiers of government, the Strategy establishes a framework to support actions that can help work towards halving Australia’s food waste by 2030.

National support for the strategy has been provided by Australia’s environment ministers, and acknowledges the importance of addressing food waste and the impact it has on the environment, the economy and society.

Reducing food waste is a complex challenge due to the range of food types and their supply chains, and regulatory frameworks to support food safety and waste disposal. It also presents a number of opportunities to rethink how food waste can be prevented, or how wasted food can be used for other purposes.

The National Food Waste Strategy adopts a circular economy approach that takes into account the food waste hierarchy and seeks to capture food waste as a resource so it is not sent to landfill. The use of circular economy approaches and the waste hierarchy to address food waste demands a more strategic and collaborative approach. This will challenge to find solutions across the entire food system rather than continuing to operate within single, linear supply and consumption chains.

Managing Australia’s food waste

There are already a number of activities in Australia to reduce food waste. These include consumer education, investment in waste treatment infrastructure, waste diversion from the retail and commercial sector, food collection for redistribution, and research into high value uses for food waste such as composting.

Many local governments have identified the significant amount of food in their waste streams and are taking steps to reduce food waste through a range of programs including Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) recycling.

BioPak, a global leader in the innovation and production of environmentally – sustainable packaging, today unveiled Australia’s first comprehensive composting service for food service packaging, including paper coffee cups, in a move designed to divert food scraps and food service packaging from landfill.

BioPak Chief Executive Officer, Gary Smith, said the new service will allow customers to dispose of used coffee cups and BioPak compostable takeaway food packaging in specially designed collection bins at their local cafes or workplaces. He said the service would initially cover most areas in Sydney’s CBD and in near suburbs.

“By bringing together waste contractors and compost facility operators we are been able to offer a sustainable end of life solution for our products,” Mr Smith said. The service already has customers like Allpress coffee roasters, local cafes, and a major financial institution, which has implemented the program at their Sydney head office. The special compost bins will be collected weekly and sent to commercial facilities to be composted – and in only eight weeks, they will be turned into nutritious soil compost for gardens or farms.

BioPak founder Richard Fine said the aim of the service was to ensure that the environmental benefit of compostable , single use disposable packaging could be maximised, helping customers in reducing the environmental impact of their business. “In Australia, we send more than eight million tonnes of organic waste to landfill every year, including 1.5 million tonnes of food waste,” Mr Fine said.

“The problem with this is that when food waste decomposes in landfills, it releases methane, which is a greenhouse gas 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide, resulting in enormous damage to our environment. “Switching to compostable food service packaging, including compostable coffee cups, can divert much of this material from going to landfill.” Mr Fine said that BioPak products provided a compostable alternative to the standard plastic, single-use food service packaging that was normally made from finite fossil resources.

“Our products are designed for a circular economy, using rapidly renewable and sustainably sourced material that return nutrients back into the soil at the end of their life,” he said. “There is a growing awareness of the environmental impact of single use plastics. We need to work to stem the flow of plastics into our oceans and to replace durable plastics derived from fossil resources as a material of choice for products that last for generations but have a functional life measured in minutes.”

During “Together against marine litter and micro-plastics”, the high-level side event held at the UN Environment Assembly taking place in Nairobi (Kenya), Christophe De Boissoudy, managing director of Novamont France, illustrated the vision of the Italian research company that has been developing and producing biochemicals and biobased, biodegradable and compostable plastics since 1991.

For more than 25 years Novamont has been working to define a model to provide innovative solutions to the problems posed by plastics when they are used for certain applications that have a high risk of polluting bio-waste or ending their life in the environment.

This is why Novamont is developing its activity in a circular economy model by repositioning biobased and biodegradable plastics in the larger context of the need to recover organic waste for its return to soil through compost. The inherent biodegradability of plastics must be related to each specific environment. This is the reason why, in order to avoid misleading communications, it is essential that the term “biodegradable” is associated only with the relevant degradation environment (where) and its related conditions (how much and how long).

According to Mr De Boissoudy, “Before talking about biodegradation in the marine environment, it is important to remember that 80% of the plastics found at sea is of terrestrial origin. Therefore, we need an efficient waste management in the mainland in order to avoid leakage and we have to block litter before it reaches the sea. The marine environment must be protected in the mainland. Waste must be sorted, collected, recycled, biodegraded in the mainland. Thus, paradoxically, compostability and biodegradability in soil is even more important than biodegradability in the sea, for the sake of the marine environment”.

Separate collection of waste is key and biodegradable plastics have been widely studied over the last 20 years. Many national and international standards have been adopted to show biodegradability in industrial composting, home composting and soil (e.g. EN 13432, ASTM D6400, ISO 18606, EN 17033). These standards define the ability of plastics to biodegrade totally (how much) under different conditions without adverse effects towards the environment, in industrial composting, home composting, in soil.

Sample of different MATER-BI® – Novamont bio-based bioplastics – have been exposed to marine sediments and biodegradation followed in the laboratory measuring the metabolism of marine microbes fed with the plastic. Biodegradation resulted to be higher than 90% (absolute or relative to the reference material) in less than one (1) year. The biodegradation results have been verified by Certiquality within the EU pilot programme “Environmental Technology Verification (ETV).

These results obtained in laboratory have been further confirmed by Nora-Charlotte Pauli, Jana S. Petermann, Christian Lott, Miriam Weber in “ROYAL SOCIETY-OPEN SCIENCE: Macrofouling communities and the degradation of plastic bags in the sea: an in situ experiment”: “Contrary to PE, the biodegradable plastic showed a significant loss of tensile strength and disintegrated over time in both habitats. These results indicate that in the marine environment, biodegradable polymers may disintegrate at higher rates than conventional polymers. This should be considered for the development of new materials, environmental risk assessment and waste management strategies” (http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/4/10/170549)

The Victorian Government is seeking views from the community on banning single-use lightweight plastic shopping bags and managing plastic pollution in Victoria. Have your say and help to design a ban on lightweight plastic bags that is fair, effective and lasting.

Australians use around 10 million plastic bags every day – an astonishing 4 billion every year. Of these, approximately 150 million end up in our oceans and waterways, contributing to an estimated 8 million tonnes of plastic dumped into the ocean every year. These plastic bags fill our landfill, harm our wildlife, and can take between 15 and 1,000 years to break down in the environment. Even then, they never disappear; they simply break down into smaller and smaller fragments that continue to cause environmental harm. Most Victorian council kerbside recycling bins do not accept plastic bags, and only 3% of Australia’s plastic bags are currently being recycled.

The Australasian Bioplastics Association (ABA) supports a ban on single use non-recyclable polyethylene plastic bag. The ABA would like consideration given to the role that certified compostable plastic bags can play as an alternative to the non-recyclable polyethylene plastic bag. With certified compostable plastics being fully biodegradable, there is no risk of micro plastic being available to the environment when disposed of in the required end of life of composting, whether commercial or home. International experience of bans on plastic bags and packaging demonstrates that certified compostable bags are highly beneficial in assisting in kitchen food waste collection for diversion to composting whether in the home or a commercial facility. Certified Compostable material can also be used to develop heavy duty reusable bags.

Provide your view to the Victorian Government Consultation until the 25 January 2018.

Albury City Council was recognised for its considerable achievements in implementing a FOGO service for residents in Albury and neighbouring councils at the NSW Australian Organics Recycling Association (AORA) Annual awards ceremony on Friday 10 November.

Winners in the ‘Outstanding Local Government Initiative in Organics Collection/Processing or Marketing’ category the Halve Waste Councils (Albury, Wodonga, Towong, Greater Hume, Federation and Indigo) thoroughly deserved the recognition.

The goal of Halve Waste is to reduce the waste to landfill by 50% by 2020.

In 2015 the Halve Waste Councils committed to delivering a food and garden organics collection service for residents. This has resulted in a 90% take up with 50,000 households from four Shires participating. 22,000 in Albury, 17,000 in Wodonga, 5,000 in Indigo and 5,000 in Federation Council.

The community has really rallied behind the organics service. In fact, the group of Councils has produced the highest quality compost with the lowest levels of contamination in the State. So far, the contamination rate has been less than 1% overall!

Andrea Baldwin manages the Halve Waste Initiative on behalf of the Councils. Andrea was recognised at the awards as the ‘best’ waste manager driving organics collection and recovery.

To date (November 2017) and since its introduction in 2015, the service has generated over 54,000 tonnes of food and garden organics, all of which is being recycled into much needed compost for farms.

Mike Ritchie from MRA Consulting Group accepted the award on behalf of AlburyCity and said “If any council was looking for a model for implementing a food and garden organics collection service and engaging the community – Halve Waste is the answer. The Halve Waste Councils are to be congratulated for their initiative and achievement in halving the waste to landfill in the region.”

The Halve Waste Councils are to be congratulated for their initiative and achievement in halving the waste to landfill in the region.

The award was presented by Annie Kavanagh on behalf of the NSW EPA. The NSW EPA has supported the implementation of FOGO collection through the Waste Less Recycle More funding program.

https://www.bioplastics.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Halve-Waste-Albury.png5461552Robin Tuckermanhttps://bioplastics.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/logo_aba1.pngRobin Tuckerman2017-12-19 04:02:532017-12-19 06:11:10Albury City Council recognised for its considerable achievements in implementing a FOGO service

You may have heard the term FOGO being used in the media or through local Councils more and more but what does it actually mean. FOGO stands for Food Organic and Garden Organics.

FOGO is considered any food waste including fruit and vegetable scraps, processed food and leftovers from meals such as meat, fish, chicken, bread, egg, egg shells, dairy products, coffee grounds and tea bags. Garden waste can include grass clippings, flowers and herbs, small branches and leaves. Paper towel, compostable plates, and compostable bags can also be disposed of through a FOGO service.

So why all the talk about FOGO?

Many Australian and New Zealand councils have recognised that sending FOGO to landfill does not offer any benefits. FOGO is far better off being composted, either at home or a commercial composting facility. Recognising that not everyone home composts, many councils are trialling or introducing FOGO collections services, where FOGO is collected and sent to a commercial composing facility.

Composting FOGO is great for our environment

Most of the greenhouse gas emissions from landfill come from decomposing organic material which could be recycled. Not only do food and garden organics produce methane as they decompose in landfill, but their nutrients remain locked in landfill and can’t be used again to grow plants and food. Compost can be used to fertilise gardens, farms and sporting fields and the mulch can be used to protect against weeds, reduce plant stress and save water in gardens, parks, orchards and vineyards.

Composting and mulching FOGO is also cheaper than sending them to landfill. By reducing the amount of material sent to landfill then councils can invest in other community services.